So, you’ve just joined Shopify and have all the fun stuff figured out! You have a creative name for your shop that you love, you have an awesome logo, and you are pumped about your product selection. Now, it’s time to do some under-the-hood tuning for your shop. Here is a list of the nuts and bolts that your shop desperately needs in order to thrive.

No matter which tools you pick, you absolutely must use apps that seamlessly integrate with your Shopify store. By ‘seamlessly integrate,’ we mean that all of your data gets automatically transferred between your store and the app, saving you countless hours of avoidable reconciliation.

The case for apps is simple: why do manual work that a computer can do for you – most likely in a faster, smarter and more accurate fashion? Do yourself a favor and remove time-consuming manual tasks by choosing the following apps:

Bizzy for smart email marketing

What is Bizzy?Bizzy increases your Shopify sales with targeted email marketing. The app links directly with your Shopify shop and automatically divides your customers into groups based on purchasing patterns. Then, Bizzy suggests email marketing campaigns for each customer. After you personalize and approve each campaign, Bizzy automatically sends the right email to the right customer at the right time.

Why is Bizzy the best option? Email marketing is still the most effective way to boost sales conversions. Bizzy is different from existing tools because all of your analytics, content creation, and email execution happen in one place – on Bizzy. The app automatically analyzes your data and immediately inputs that information into emails. Do you have customer information from a source other than Shopify? No problem! Bizzy can easily pull customer lists from multiple sources and consolidate all of your contacts into one easy-to-use marketing system. Do you dislike writing the content for emails? Bizzy has your back. On Bizzy, all of the emails have pre-populated content. Modify if you’d like. Otherwise, just hit send!

What is Bizzy’s coolest feature? Bizzy will automatically generate unique one-time-use coupons for each customer and drop them into your emails. The app manages all of the synchronization with your Shopify shop, so don’t have to deal with any copying, pasting, coupon-sharing, or HTML.

How much does Bizzy cost? And here’s the best part — Bizzy is free until you make money from the app’s email campaigns. It’s never been so simple to be smart!

What is ShipStation? Gone are the days when you have to send away for a label printing machine from the United States Postal Service. ShipStation makes the whole shipping process super easy. With one system, you can easily process orders and produce shipping documents. Then, you can print your shipping labels, pick lists and packing slips from any printer. Suddenly, fulfilment is no longer tedious!

Why is ShipStation the best option? ShipStation never marks up carrier shipping rates or adds additional charges when you pay for postage using your credit card. Plus, ShipStation allows you to integrate with multiple e-commerce platforms (in case Shopify isn’t your only shop), including eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.

What is ShipStation’s coolest feature? ShipStation is integrated with FBA, so you can sell your products through Shopify and have Amazon fulfill them for you. This can make your life significantly easier!

How much does ShipStation cost? Plans start at $25/month and include a USPS account, which normally costs $16/month on its own.

What is Zapstitch? Zapstitch automatically syncs your Shopify data with your accounting software so that you don’t have to manually transfer data back and forth. This is a lifesaver. The app automatically sends all of your sales information to your accounting software, including discounts, sales tax, shipping fees, refunds and transaction fees. The synchronization simplifies an otherwise extremely complicated endeavor!

Why is Zapstitch the best option? Zapstitch is awesome because it allows information to flow in both directions: from your shop into your accounting software and from your accounting software into your shop.

What is Zapstitch’s coolest feature? You can schedule your syncs to happen as often as you’d like (hourly or daily), so that you never need to manually trigger them. The potential for manual accounting errors is almost totally gone!

How much does Zapstitch cost? Zapstitch starts at $39/month for up to 600 orders/month and goes up from there.

What is Blogfeeder? Are you spending lots of time writing blog content, but still keeping it on a site that is separate from your Shopify shop? Blogfeeder is your answer. They import your posts from whatever platform you are using (WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, etc) directly into your Shopify store. Now, your customers can see all of your content in one place. Plus, now all of your hard work on your blog content will help optimize the SEO for your shop’s main page! Blogfeeder continues to check your blog source for new and updated posts, so you never have to worry about keeping things manually up-to-date.

Why is Blogfeeder the best option? Not only can you import multiple blog feeds into your Shopify store, but you can also choose whether you want a one-time import or constant syncing. Blogfeeder is truly flexible to meet your unique needs!

What is Blogfeeder’s coolest feature? BlogFeeder is seamlessly embedded into your Shopify admin console, so you can manage your feeds and shop at the same time.

How much does Blogfeeder cost? $9.99 for a one-time import and $5.99/month for ongoing use.

What is Social Autopilot? Whenever you list a new product or publish a new blog post, the Social Autopilot app will Tweet and/or Facebook it at random intervals with a different random message. This action will save you a ton of time – as it effectively puts a significant chunk of your social media tasks on autopilot. You can even create multiple templates so your posts and tweets are different every time. Never again will you accidentally forget to notify your followers about a new product or blog post!

Why is Social Autopilot the best option? Social Autopilot was built by Bold Commerce – Shopify’s top app and development partner. You can always expect quality work and a seamless integration from them. Not to mention, their reviews are stupendous.

What is Social Autopilot’s coolest feature? You can set the intervals to post at any hour span you want, so your Twitter feed won’t look like it is being managed by a robot.

What is Carson? While running a Shopify store, all of us ultimately spend part of our day getting bogged down by small tasks required for upkeep. If you haven’t already run into this, we promise…you will. For any tasks that you encounter that can’t be automated by a computer, check out Carson. For a monthly fee, you can get unlimited small Shopify tasks done fast by their team of experts. It’s like having a really Shopify-savvy personal assistant always on call. Carson handles these small tasks, so you can get back to do what you do best – continuously offering customers a new and awesome experience on your site.

Why is Carson the best option? The creators of Carson are true Shopify and e-commerce experts. There is no challenge they haven’t seen before. In all likelihood, any task that takes a Shopify beginner a couple of hours would take them under an hour – saving you time and money.

What is Carson’s coolest feature? The fact that you can get expert help whenever you need it. Suddenly, you have an awesome business partner!

This article is a guest post by Jennifer Kessler and Chiara McPhee, the co-founders of Bizzy. Bizzy was developed by a small team in San Francisco that believes that every business, no matter its size, deserve access to analytic-driven marketing. Jennifer Kessler and Chiara McPhee met at Stanford, where they realized their shared passion for democratizing access to effective business tools. They have both managed Shopify shops and are excited to be developing the marketing tool they wish they had in their previous jobs! Learn more at http://bizzy.io.

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About Carson

Carson is the highest rated Shopify expert team in the Shopify experts directory. We are a white glove Shopify support service trusted by more than 3,000 store owners. Our aim is to help you take care of your small development and graphic fixes so that you can stay focused on the big picture. Submit a small job request today!